Pieter De Buysser premiered his performance and fulldome film The Tip of the Tongue at Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2017. He reprised the magic-realist tale for an entire season at the Planetarium in Brussels on every 11th of the month at eleven minutes past eight. See the very last shows to sustain this astronomical production!

Get to know the latest generation of theatre-makers. In June, three theatre students from the RITCS will be presenting their graduation productions at the Kaaistudios. Not mine and other stories invites you to take a seat at the table. A table at which stories of a generation of twenty-somethings pass by. Young people with an opinion, who coincidently cross each other’s path in the city. Or is there more to it than coincidence?

For this adaption of Bertrand Tavernier’s film Coup de Torchon (1981), Guy Cassiers is collaborating with the theatre collective LAZARUS – a confrontation between scenographic precision and rowdy playfulness. The creators are serving an uncomfortable fable about the moral bankruptcy of a society that looks very much like our own. It is a universe full of grotesque characters that teeter on the edge of the abyss.

In the growing series Simple as ABC, Thomas Bellinck focuses on the Western migration management machine. This third instalment takes you to an imagined museum where there are only voices. You hear scraps of Arabic, English, Farsi, French, and Greek, gathered around the Mediterranean Sea. The absent narrators share their stories and thus sketch a many-voiced portrait of the contemporary hunt for humans.

Following the Weiblicher Akt series Maatschappij Discordia is launching a series about Love as it is described by women. In this first part, the company is exploring the work of Marguerite Duras (1914-1996). They let fragments from Duras’ novels resonate with personal stories to create a unique sketch of what love is and can be.

Six actors on the stage and only one solo. There are no leading or secondary roles, but six simultaneous interpretations of the same script. How strictly will each actor comply with the stage directions? Will they allow one another a place in the spotlight? The Script focuses on acting, ánd on the existential loneliness that you sometimes feel in a group.

Unfortunately, we have to cancel all shows due to the refusal of visas for the Congolese actors/dancers.

What is theatre? What do emotions and history signify on the stage? Faustin Linyekula shows his personal perspective on the history of dance and theatre in Africa. To what extent does the past define the present and even the future? Accompanied by music by Ray Lema, he challenges the basic techniques of “real theatre”.

In MEMENTO MORI!, documentary filmmaker and visual artist Els Dietvorst brings two solos together. The first is performed by Dirk Roofthooft, one of Flanders’ most iconic actors, the second is performed by the Brussels-based actress Aurelie Di Marino. You can expect a theatre evening about fragility and transience, but also about universal themes like individualization, globalization, the relationship between humanity and nature, and migration.

Since time immemorial, the idea of an island as a place of infinite possibilities has been a source of inspiration for writers and artists. In Crash Park, theatre-maker Philippe Quesne has written his own robinsonade. When the survivors of a plane crash emerge from the wreckage, they encounter the desert island and its inhabitants. Epic scenes alternate with melancholic wanderings, while this contemporary fable spotlights the greatness and the failings of the human race.

A gleaner walks behind the harvesters and picks up the ears of grain that were left on the field. In AREN, Benjamin Verdonck takes you on a journey to the unproduced or incomplete works in his studio. You can expect to see installations, a cabinet of curiosities, and a miniature theatre.

Two men – both imprisoned in one way or another – want to live it up one last time. Begin the Beguine is the last text that the legendary filmmaker John Cassavetes ever wrote. The jet-black allegory about love and death was kept in a cupboard for 25 years by Cassavetes’ heirs. Until the German publisher S. Fischer Verlag asked Jan Lauwers to take on the staging of this masterpiece.

As the world stands on the verge of collapse, a man and a woman exchange a razor-sharp dialogue based on a caustic text by Heiner Müller. Frank Vercruyssen from tg STAN and Cynthia Loemij from Rosas share the stage and explore the essence of the relationship between words and movement. Again at Kaaitheater after 20 years!

They’ve had enough of lonely nights onstage, so Laura van Dolron and Willem de Wolf from the KOE want to answer all your questions. The actors search and struggle, assisted by two musicians. Every evening, this results in a live philosophical theatre concert full of poetry, thought, action, hope and despair…and ultimately there is perhaps one answer that transcends all questions.

Rokia Traoré is an icon of African music. She narrates the epic of King Soundiata Keita, the King who based his power on respect and not on greed or violence, and the unifier of the great 13th-century Mandé Empire. Traoré blends classic songs by the Mandé griots into her narrative. These poets and singers were responsible for a unique form of oral history.

Unfortunately, we have to cancel all shows due to the illness of one of the actors.

No trouble or expense is being spared during the centenary of the Great War. So what are we commemorating – and especially, why? Using quotations from politicians, marketeers, and re-enactors, Thomas Bellinck exposes the mechanisms behind the centenary. What exactly is the relationship between commemoration, politics, tourism, and big business?

Julian Hetzel questions the aestheticization of violence and the explosive power of images of war. Based on the principle of ‘creation through destruction’, he imported several kilos of war rubble from Syria. In Europe, he transformed this debris into art. In All Inclusive, he juxtaposes art and war, tourists and refugees, and connects reality with imagination.

Last season, Tibaldus presented an energetic adaptation of Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy by Witold Gombrowicz at Kaaitheater. They are now staging another play by the Polish author. Tibaldus enhances the musicality of Gombrowicz’ play by connecting textual motifs with Flemish polyphonic melodies. They are again presenting a surprising take on an unconventional repertoire!

In this beautiful philosophical and ecological fable, Ivana Müller reflects on a world dictated by humanity. She starts from our relationship with nature. Four human beings wander around an unusual and slightly absurd universe. The trust, symbiosis, tensions, and ruptures between the four walkers and one mysterious plant create an intriguing ecosystem. Their manipulations, interventions, and the rubbish they leave behind slowly but surely create a Romantic tableau.

Two theatre makers. One from Bagdad, the other from Amsterdam. Together, they perform nine miniatures which together form on theatre evening. It is the search of two wandering souls for common ground, rooted in the Great Themes. De verse tijd is an encounter between two men who are sometimes diametrically opposed, but who can also be fraternally supportive.

Milo Rau and his team travel to the political hotspots of the age: the Mediterranean refugee routes from the Middle East and the areas affected by the Congolese Civil War. In this semi-documentary double monologue, Els Dottermans and the young French actress Olga Mouak intentionally occupy contradictory terrain. How can we bear the misery of others and why do we look at it?

Tine Van Aerschot is presenting a show about love. The love of the child, the adult, and the old person. The love between the three actresses: Lois Brochez, Sara De Roo, and Dounia Mahammed. The love for the infinite beauty of the world around us. The texts are based on conversations that she had with children and adults. But remarkable love stories from the past and from literature also have their place.

With the help of the youngest generation of theatre performers, Jan Decorte and Sigrid Vinks explore Hamlet in depth. By recycling all the different versions, they create a new Hamletmachine, but this is one for the 21st century. Using fragments and scraps of texts from the past, Decorte redefines the primal conflicts of human existence.

In Museum of Lungs, author and performer Stacy Hardy talks about her life with TBC, about the years before the diagnosis, and about her treatments since. She combines intimate, personal testimonies with historical archival materials. Together with musicians Neo Muyanga and Nancy Mounir, director Laila Soliman and Hardy also show how vulnerability and disease can initiate resistance and change.

The young director Lisaboa Houbrechts is tackling Hamlet. She has opted for the female perspective, focusing on the destructive relationship between Hamlet and his mother Queen Gertrude. Houbrechts primarily aims to illustrate Gertrude’s innocence and thus to show the iconic play in a radically different light.